Last week I created a link to the Interim Director of Municipal Financial Operations’ presentation to City Council, which contained this graphic:
Today I checked out the City’s website and I noticed a tab in their menu headed “Link Policy.” Here’s part of what it says:
What you should not do.
Please do not capture our pages within your frames, or otherwise present our content as your own. Any link to our site should be a full forward link that passes the client browser to our site unencumbered. The “BACK” button should return the visitor to your site if the visitor wishes to back out. Although all content on our site is public information, the CITY OF EL PASO maintains and will defend a copyright interest in these pages.
You should not link to individual graphics or tables within our pages, especially in an effort to place the downloading burden on our servers. Such an action may be considered a misuse of CITY OF EL PASO resources. To get permission to use a copy of our graphics within your pages, please contact the webmaster@elpasotexas.gov outlining your intended uses.
Now, do you suppose that the City of El Paso is concerned with its intellectual property rights, or do you think they’re more interested in pulling the wool over your eyes? Are they afraid of informed citizens? Talk about a misuse of CITY OF EL PASO resources.
Is this the kind of “transparency” you want from City government? Do you suppose that the webmaster@elpasotexas.gov will have the authority to approve the use of graphics from the City’s website, or will he have to pass it on to the Ministry of Truth, to make sure it conforms to the City’s narrative?
Don’t you think that our City government should have more pressing concerns than whether or not someone is presenting public information from their site? Isn’t our mayor concerned with the legal costs an abuse of power will likely incur in the courts? He claims to hate those kind of expenses, but here he is, just asking to get sued.
The truth is that the City uses the courts to bully opposition, and then whines like a spoiled brat when someone stands up to them.
Your elected officials should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this abuse of power to take place while they’re supposed to be overseeing City government. What do they have to hide?
And, what’s worse, in case we’ve forgotten, when they use the courts? It is at our expense! So, we get screwed twice! Yes, that’s right. It’s your basic twofer, and it ain’t even Tuesday yet!
I highly doubt the City’s website ever has any kind of traffic burden on their website.
This is just a bald-faced attempt to stifle citizen participation and free speech.
Our tax payer dollars pay for that website, it is public domain and we have every right to use whatever is on it as we see fit.
Copyright interest? Sheeeesh